(Digital Vision) People who walk regularly and briskly after suffering a stroke will not only improve their physical fitness, but also their mobility and quality of life, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica had one group of stroke survivors follow a supervised program of brisk outdoor walking for three months. A second group, which did not do supervised exercise, received therapeutic massages. The walkers started out by following a designated route...

WASHINGTON -- Ushering in the bloom of spring, it's time to set the clocks forward for daylight saving time. At 2 a.m. local time Sunday, daylight saving time arrives with the promise of many months ahead with an extra hour of evening sunlight. That means to turn your clock ahead one hour before you head to bed tonight. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) You lose an hour of sleep, but make sure to turn the clock ahead - spring forward - before...

A dove rests on a tree near a Chinese sign read as "China" at a park on Monday, April 1, 2013 in Shanghai, China. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) BEIJING - China reported Tuesday that four more people in one province were seriously sickened by a bird flu virus new to humans while cities along the eastern seaboard stepped up public health measures to guard against a disease that has already caused two deaths. The health bureau of eastern Jiangsu province said...

A worker arranges containers of chickens at a wholesale market on Thursday, April 4, 2013, in Shanghai, China. In a worrisome sign, a bird flu in China appears to have mutated so that it can spread to other animals, raising the potential for a bigger threat to people, scientists said Wednesday. (AP Photo) A bird flu virus never before found in humans has grabbed world attention this week after it infected and killed people in China. Scientists have been scrambling...

A dove rests on a tree near a Chinese flag fluttering at a park on April 1, 2013, in Shanghai, China. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) BEIJING — China announced a sixth death from a new bird flu strain Friday, while authorities in Shanghai halted the sale of live fowl and slaughtered all poultry at a market where the virus was detected in pigeons being sold for meat. The mass bird killing is the first so far as the Chinese government responds...

What makes the citizens of a city happy or sad? While the daily forecast changes people’s moods day-to-day and the natural beauty of a place has impact, takes a look at six areas: “life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors, and access to basic necessities.” Gallup has been tracking those areas via daily polling since 2008 and has released the results of its 2012 polls - this time broken down by metropolitan area. Take a look at...

BEIJING -- A new strain of bird flu that emerged in China over the past month is one of the "most lethal" flu viruses so far, worrying health officials because it can jump more easily from birds to humans than the one that started killing people a decade ago, World Health Organization officials said Wednesday. Scientists are watching the virus closely to see if it could spark a global pandemic but say there is little evidence so far that it...

Good news: Nationwide air quality is improving, according to the latest State of the Air report from the American Lung Association. Bad news: More than 40 percent of all Americans still live in places with unhealthy levels of either particle or ozone pollution – a severe health threat that only gets worse as the days get hotter and longer. Air pollutants – particularly the microscopic particle pollution from car exhaust, factories and aerosols – can cause lung and heart disease...

Hawaii, a state known for sun, surf and stress relief, is the least-stressed state in the nation for the fifth year in a row, according to the . Nationwide, more than 40 percent of Americans reported feeling frazzled the day before taking the poll, similar to past years. Regionally, the most-stressed states were clustered in the Northeast and Midwest. To develop the list, pollsters asked more than 350,000 Americans whether they felt stressed “during a lot of the day yesterday.”...

(Digital Vision) Climate can elevate your risk of certain diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, so much, scientists say it’s possible to alter your long-term health forecast by switching climate zones. When it comes to stroke, however, changes in latitude aren’t enough to lower your risk, a new study published in the journal Neurology found. In the study, people who spent their teens in the geographic ‘Stroke Belt’ continued to have a higher risk of stroke into adulthood, even if they...

(BananaStock) When lightning strikes, a migraine might not be far behind, according to a paper published in the journal of the International Headache Society earlier this year. In the study, there was a 31 percent increase in headache incidence whenever lightning struck land within 25 miles of the homes of the headache patients studied. Plus, incidences of new-onset headaches increased by a quarter during lightning strikes. The migraine-headache connection is so strong – and changes in barometric pressure so keenly...

(Maria Teijeiro) Want to slim down before swimsuit season? Take up gardening. Gardeners not only weigh less than their neighbors, but also they have a significantly lower chance of being overweight or obese, researchers at the University of Utah report in the American Journal of Public Health online. Women community gardeners had an average BMI 1.84 lower than their neighbors, translating to an 11-pound weight difference in a 5’5” woman. In men, BMI was lower by 2.36 – a difference...